Ann Schmiesing biography
Ann Schmiesing is the senior vice chancellor for strategic initiatives.泭
The SVCSI is a campuswide resource, combining strategic oversight with high-level support to the chancellor, serving as a key advisor and liaison across CU 勒貊勛圖s executive team. Ann works across internal and external constituencies to advance campus goals and ensure ongoing and consistent success.
She served as interim chancellor at CU Denver in fall 2024 and previously served as vice chancellor and executive vice provost for academic resource management on the CU 勒貊勛圖 campus. As VC-ARM, she was responsible for academic resource strategy and analysis in support of the universitys mission as a comprehensive public teaching and research institution. In that role, she assumed a strategic initiative and critical liaison role while overseeing the Graduate School, Continuing Education, CU 勒貊勛圖 Online, and research infrastructure.
A professor of German and Scandinavian Studies, Schmiesing has been a CU 勒貊勛圖 faculty member since 1995. Her book泭The Brothers Grimm: A Biography泭(Yale, 2024) won the American Folklore Societys Wayland D. Hand Prize and the UK Folklore Societys Katharine Briggs Award, and appeared on the泭New Yorker泭Best Books of 2024,泭New Statesman泭Best Summer Reads 2025, and泭History Extra泭Best History Summer Reads of 2025 lists. She is also the author of the books泭Disability, Deformity, and Disease in the Grimms Fairy Tales泭(Wayne State, 2014) and泭Norways Christiania Theatre, 1827-1867: From Danish Showhouse to National Stage泭(Fairleigh Dickinson, 2006). Her publications in nationally and internationally peer-reviewed journals include articles on the Brothers Grimm, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Daniel Chodowiecki, Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel, Bj繪rnstjerne Bj繪rnson, Henrik Wergeland, and Johan Falkberget, and on issues pertaining to fairy tales, drama, narrative fiction, theatre history, book illustration, and disability studies. She has also published and/or presented papers on several issues in humanities pedagogy, including service learning, curriculum development, and the utilization of rare books collections in humanities teaching.
Before assuming her administrative roles, Schmiesing served as chair of the Department of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures (200711), director of the Sewall Residential Academic Program (201516), and dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate affairs (201618). She received the Excellence in Leadership and Service Award from the 勒貊勛圖 Faculty Assembly in 2016.泭
Schmiesing earned a PhD from Cambridge University (UK), an MA from the University of Washington, and a BA from Willamette University.泭泭
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